ActBlue - Reddit for Warren

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Welcome to /r/ElizabethWarren, a community for supporters of US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a candidate for President of the United States of America. For more information about Sen. Warren, be sure to visit her campaign website!

If we organize together, if we fight together, if we persist together, we can win!

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Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has announced the end of his 2020 Presidential bid and former Vice President Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee in November.

“As I see the crisis gripping the nation,” Sanders told supporters in a video address Wednesday that was streamed live from his home in Burlington, Vt., “I cannot in good conscience continue to mount a campaign that cannot win and which would interfere in the important work required of all of us in this difficult hour.”

Biden released a statement and the two had a discussion on Wednesday. The Sanders camp has spoke at length with the Biden campaign and the Senator plans to be heavily involved in the planning of the Democratic platform this summer.

Regarding this thread:

This will now be the ONLY SPACE to discuss the primary as the sub will be focusing on securing a win for the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden. Posts regarding the primary will be removed and users will be directed here.

This thread is only for ACTIVE r/ElizabethWarren users. If you have a history on this sub as an active participant, you are free to post. New users who violate rules will not be given the same leeway as long time users.

Same as before, we will not allow for any violations of our sub's rules. They still stand. If you see any occur, please refrain from engaging and report them. Do not brigade, do not be disrespectful and allow participants to mourn the end of the campaign as we've encouraged when other candidates have dropped.

There will soon be a Democratic Presidential Election Thread posted and that will be the new space to discuss 2020 that do not directly have to do with Senator Warren. It will be posted on afrequent basis to serve as such if demand calls for it.

Lastly, rulefour existed for a reason and the mods hope everyone understands why. Our number one is not our candidate but she. is out here working for all of us. This is a critical time and we are in to vulnerable of a state to become complacent. We must all remember that electing a Democrat into the White House, State Legislatures and everything in between is paramount. A very appropriate example is the Republican-held legislature and courts in Wisconsin and the drastic damage they are causing. This is what we are fighting against. Senator Warren has been working day in and day out to not only pull us out of this health and economic crisis, but to secure a win in November. #LFG

I read some distressing comments on IG of my friends that still think Bernie is #1 and Warren “lacks issues, etc” 🤯
How should I respond? Where’s the Whitney gif when I need it? “Let me see the receipts”

Assuming they are your friend and an actual person, I'd start by talking to them not on social media. Better outlets. I'll let you decide how to talk to them, and it will be different if they are a white lefty. Frankly my advice would just be to ditch them as a friend based on that, but that's your choice.

You could say that the MN AG backed Bernie in both campaigns.

You could try to explain that filing charges isn't an immediate action, but needs to be done deliberately (manslaughter, negligent homicide, murder, and then all of these in X degrees). Because if you file the wrong charges, these cases can just be dismissed or a judge could find the defendant innocent on those specific charges. I'm not a lawyer, just a layman, but it's a very difficult process.

That the AG took over the prosecution from the county attorney just a few days ago and I think 1 or 2 days after all four officers involved were booked and charged.

That the evening or evening after George Flloyd was murdered that the mayor was calling for the officer to be charged and arrested. And that the mayor and governor do not have that power.

That Obama did implement several police reforms after the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, which Trump entirely rolled back. And that the police union president in MN praised Trump for "undoing Obama's oppression of police" or whatever.

That calling anyone with even some semblance of shared goals the "enemy" is idiotic and counter productive. And if Warren is an enemy, then you just have issues. Both personally and politically. Now if you want to say neoliberals (to be clear, I am absolutely not saying Warren is) or blue dog democrats or whatever are obstacles, that is at least reasonable language.

And that you can say all of this and still have criticism of police reforms which have or haven't happened under Democratic state governments or municipal governments. Particularly municipal, who have alot of control over their police budgets, and there is a very wide growing opposition to DeBlasio (who incidentally backed Bernie) and Garcietti (who incidentally backed Biden) in particular.

Why does that article annoy me so much? Maybe it's just that it makes me think of how frustrating it was in school when there was one kid who usually behaved badly and he would get heaps of praise for doing the least little positive thing, while the teacher would ignore the good kids who had been working so hard every day.

They are ignoring all the other candidates who dropped out and immediately supported Biden (Amy and Pete actually ended their campaigns early), because that was expected of them. Whereas Bernie they're heaping praise on because they're so surprised he can be a "team player." Guess it helps a lot when the team he's joining isn't lead by a woman?!

No, Rep. Khanna, I don't think Bernie is owed an apology for being expected to behave the same way he did in 2016. If anyone is owed an apology, it is Hillary Clinton for the way Bernie's supporters treated her (booing at the convention) without Bernie doing much of anything to stop them.

Now what it means to undermine a campaign is a different topic. And what it means to be divisive is a very long conversation. But with regards to purely the presidential campaign, there are notable and influential Democrats (as opposed to just randos on twitter) who did openly doubt Bernie's willingness to support Biden, attempt to begin unity efforts, etc. Which were both idiotic and unfair.

Now to your point, yes, he has missed alot of votes. He last voted in early or mid March. Now I don't know how important each of those votes was, given the absurdity of the senate and how they don't really do anything aside from confirm judges. The big exception being the FISA bill which failed at 59 votes. My own senator, Patty Murray, also missed the vote - but she at least responded to missing it.

I'll let Vermont constituents decide the importance of missing votes in totality, but he absolutely should not have missed this one. And everyone can do whatever mental gymnastics they want depending on their side. If he's being correctly criticized for it, are they also criticizing the 10 Dems who voted against it. If someone is justifying him missing it, do they extend that justification to other senators?. To their credit, I did see at least some of the hostile-left at least to some degree call out this failure in his duty.

Am I glad I backed Warren in the primary. Seeing sirota and winnie wong sniping at Faz Shakir, Jeff Weaver, and Bernie by association is just really something else. While Trump is gassing protesters and mulling sending in active duty military. I still have great respect for Bernie, but oh boy did he have a blind eye on some of these hires (compounded on the oddity that Sirota wasn't allowed on the campaign trail).

As is my nature, I do not condone any hateful messeges sent to them. I know BGJ in particular has been on some receiving end of that. Just ignore them. That's all I think should be done.

It just really makes me admire how disciplined a campaign Warren had, despite any internet campaign quarterbacking I do in hindsight.

For what it’s worth to them, I wrote “ready to assume the presidency, has expertise helping US recover from a financial crisis=Elizabeth Warren.”

I wonder how much weight they put on these surveys? Because asking about VP’s is a great way to get people to engage so it’s good marketing in their part. But I wonder if that will backfire if Biden picks someone else for VP and people will be like “he didn’t listen to us!” Hope not.

“But I wonder if that will backfire if Biden picks someone else for VP and people will be like “he didn’t listen to us!” Hope not.”

Felt this. Quoting her walk out music again, “they’ll use your mind and never give you credit”
Thankfully she keeps working, supporting and advocating for people and doing her job and she’s not, “it’s enough to drive you crazy if you let it”

How much of her work is “borrowed” to help his sail to victory bothers me though. She’s spent her career working and listening and informing her own policies with what she’s learned. Also have an unmistakable, growing feeling of mistrust the way they market the VP pick to get people to engage. Lowest $level of participation in Biden’s Victory Fund virtual reception is ‘sold out’ at $250 level. I don’t trust this, it’s not inclusive and it’s undemocratic. Full Access should be given especially during a pandemic and with rampant unemployment.

I only take some tiny solace that the people who advocated for Warren as she advocated for them, surround Obama, even yesterday, in his address. Rashad Robinson and Brittany Packett Cunningham were both on his call and they both informed Warren’s campaign, and continue to build community with her.

The results are unsurprising given where you've been posting the poll. You could post it in a bunch of left-leaning subs and make it lopsided in the other direction, but the results would be no more meaningful.

I’m glad Biden is pulling in Julián Castro now, as opposing police violence has been his thing. I thought Corey Booker had mentioned it too but that article said just Castro. Maybe Booker was more about reforming private prisons. There’s so much work to be done to fix America even without the pandemic! I’m really glad the Democrats are uniting behind Biden now, as it’s going to take all different perspectives and skills.

So, I’m not sure if this counts for much, but I feel like it’s worth it to point out that Warren just got second place (for the first time) in a primary this season, in DC, and even beat Bernie, by over 2 points. See for yourselves.

So over 9,600 people marked Elizabeth Warren’s name on the ballot!? This is good news. Hope Biden’s team sees the message they’re sending 😁

This really makes you wonder what would’ve happened in the primary if Bernie Sanders had just dropped out and endorsed her. We always said, “she is electable if you vote for her!” Wish people could’ve felt safe enough to vote for her the first time around.

I think if Warren ran in 2016 in his sted it could have been awfully close, but (I think) she would have come up short, but closer than Bernie. And then in this scenario ran again in 2020, I think she could have won.

If Bernie dropped out after his heart attack or if he didn't run in the first place, Warren would have come much closer...but again, come up short. IMO.

I can't imagine a 1-pres campaign Warren winning given the particular difficulty candidates not sewn at the hip to Obama have had forming connections to older black voters, who are hugely important - particularly in Southern states. And without any winner-take-all states, once you start falling behind it gets cumulatively harder. So, in these hypotheticals, I think having a 2nd shot from 2016 to 2020 would have been important.

I want to be clear, I make zero blame on either of them. I think blaming a candidate for running or dropping out is idiotic. Each of them made their political calculus for four years, and unfortunately each was proven wrong regarding a path to winning.

It’s not clear, but I would gather that they are trying to find a better time.

News coverage has been devoted to Black Lives Matter peaceful protests ( and sometimes “news” outlets like Faux also decide to hyper focus on non-peaceful but not when it includes presidents non peaceful actions?) here and world wide.

I would guess a postponement, it’s more about reading the room, and being respectful, holding space for Americans to have their voices heard.

That being said, I do think this is important and I hope it is rescheduled.

ETA: I believe today is George Floyd’s funeral service which Biden is scheduled to attend.
Important reason to postpone any other media appearances

That makes a lot of sense. Maybe they want the Biden- Warren meeting to be lighter in tone and to cover all different policy questions, and if they had it right now it would have to be more somber and focus just on the protests and BLM, or risk seeming like they’re ignoring them.

I was really looking forward to it so I hope things will calm down enough for them to be able to do it soon!

Yes, I am concerned in part because I'm not sure elevating a former police chief is what is needed right now. Perhaps I'm wrong about her but I would prefer to have a VP who does not have a law enforcement background.

I’m more annoyed in what I perceive to be attempted manipulations & takedown by big money whiners like David Rothkopf of EW. He was all for her as President and now he’s said no to her as VP? Make it make sense.

“As great as EWarren is, and she was, to my mind, the best of the 2020 Dem candidates, I believe Joe Biden needs to pick a woman of color as his VP, a woman ready to assume the presidency & lead. In my view that is KamalaHarris I am also, however, a big fan of RepValDemings” -Rothkopf

but now it’s this: “Of all the leaders’ voices during this crisis,
that of KamalaHarris has been among the clearest and best.”

Quote Tweet @SenKamalaHarris “If you don’t agree that we have systemic racism in law enforcement, then you’re not qualified to serve the people.”

That is like the most simplistic/bland statement anyone could make about the complex problems in law enforcement right now, not to mention how far she’s distancing herself from her own culpability in the system?! Is he kidding about clearest and best? Did he just find out he might be subject to a wealth tax?
I’m feeling manipulated by his tactics and I’m not sure why some white voices, like his, are amplified.

It’s kind of out there imo to recommend she’s ready to step in and be President as Rothkopf does, when she couldn’t stand up for herself or her record on marijuana/imprisonment when Tulsi went in on her in the debates. I get that not everyone is a debater, and I think she’s great at Asking the questions, but she is not good at answering when she’s held to account.

I am kind of getting sick of mostly white wealthy men and women make declarations about Harris or Demings for VP as if picking a WOC will automatically destroy hundreds of years of systemic racism in this country. What we need is criminal justice reform and demilitarization of the police. The AG actually has way more power to act on this front than the VP.

I'm totally ok with black leaders making calls for representation, or even white people amplifying specific groups or voices (as specific individual preferences), but all the white people saying Biden "must" appoint a black woman because the black vote is important seem like they just see black people as one-dimensional caricatures that only care about the color of the VP's skin. We have polling, if you want to talk about rewarding black people in a general sense, that's where you can see what their preference is, not in your speculation on it as a white person.

I just want to start by saying that I'm not trying to be opportunistic or cold. I think what is going on in Minneapolis is incredibly disheartening and I hope the community gets the justice it is so desperately crying for. Black Lives Matter and it is time for politicians and state officials to start acting like it. With that said, two of the officers involved with the George Floyd murder were previously involved in other violent situations. One was placed on leave after the shooting of an indigenous man (he didn't shoot the man, he was just present and reinforced what the shooter said). The other was sued for beating the crap out of a guy using excessive force, the case was settled out of court. There were several dozen civilian complaints between the two officers. Amy Klobuchar was the top prosecutor at the time and has declined to press charges against more than a dozen officers accused of killing civilians. There has been reports that Amy is the leading vice president contender among more establishment democrats. Do you think that the recent racial tensions will be considered when they pick a VP?

I don't think Amy was ever a serious contender, despite the fatalism of some progressives. What I wonder is whether this example with her drags down the other candidates with law enforcement background (Harris and Demmings).

Yeah! That’s what I was thinking. I know the “Kamala’s a cop” crowd was mainly online but I think it’s virtually impossible to have a good record as a prosecutor. I only know one bad case Harris had but who knows what would happen if people started digging. To be clear I wouldn’t mind Harris as a VP, I would just rather Warren. I don’t even have anything against Klobuchar, it’s just her as a VP would mean that progressives completely lost the presidential primary. If it’s Harris or Warren, we can still claim a marginal win.

Yeah and here’s the thing, black voters like myself prefer Warren and Harris is a prosecutor. I remember signing a petition to prevent a black immigrant woman who was treated like a slave and a whipping horse by her white husband from being deported. She killed him in self defense only to be charged with murder even though she was bruised and bleeding when the cops came. When Harris was attorney general she opposed her appeal (questioned whether she was really a survivor). Since she was a prosecutor the chances of this being her only bad case is low. I hope the powers that be are taking a serious look at Warren because she’s relatively drama free. Also sign Liyah’s petition.

I just want to say I followed this subreddit all throughout the canadicy and the mod team did a spectacular job. I love how active this community still is. Hopefully we can all rejoice together when Warren because VP!

Does anyone else feel like this #justice for Carolyn hashtag is playing directly into Trump’s hands. He constantly calls the media fake news and to have actual liberal reporters retweeting/adding onto a hashtag of a story they boastfully made up, isn’t going to help our case. Is Trump an unhinged conspiracy theorist? Of course but his only goal is to tear down our institutions starting with the media. He wins the argument if he’s able to convince independents that the media gleefully lies on him. Also he wants a world where both sides are just throwing baseless conspiracies at one another and the average voter just checks out. I just don’t see the point of liberals doing this.

Perspectives like this make me so nervous about Amy. They’ve got to be paying attention to the polls and see that she adds essentially nothing that Biden doesn’t already have, right?? I’m holding out some semblance of hope, but my husband is not at all optimistic that Biden et al. will make a decision that won't have deleterious consequences.

The polls like this one ( https://www.startribune.com/star-tribune-mpr-news-kare-11-minnesota-poll-presidential-race/570571341/ ) coming out of Minnesota makes me nervous about Amy (why is it still this close). I can see him going with her if he thinks that she gets him some votes in swing states as oppose to Warren or Harris who might get him a lot of votes in safe states. But I still think that anyone who likes Amy is already voting for Joe. I agree with you that she probably doesn't add anything to the ticket.

I can see that and when the news was first leaked, I figured it was just for clickbait. After a heated discussion with my husband, I am not so sure. Like if Biden says he’ll support X, Y, and Z progressive policies, what if the committee decides that he is actually the progressive on the ticket and to ensure the moderate vote, they pick someone like Klobuchar? Far fetched I know, but not impossible.

Lmao, not in the slightest. Let’s be real, this is like the 50th most offensive thing he’s said.

A lot of people seem to think the opposite, but it’s still true that: people on Twitter, black or otherwise, are not in any representative of the black community.

If there was a poll done nationally which asked black voters about this, I guarantee that less than 20% would say it made them dislike him, and less than 10% would say it would make them less likely to vote for him (and these people probably weren’t going to vote for him anyway). I doubt you could find a black voter who would say that because of this gaffe, they’d decided to only vote if there was a black woman as VP.

Honestly, speaking as a black person, there's no damage control to do. This is Joe. He's been like this the whole campaign, and black folks chose him anyway. It's already baked into the cake, kinda like Trump with his idiocy.

It's actually kind of a good thing in some ways, coz believe me there's about one more of these per month coming down the pipeline.

IDK why everybody keeps going on Charlemagne considering how he consistently gets Dem candidates to trip up with stupid nonsense. Warren, Harris, Klobuchar have all gotten negative viral moments from going on his show.

It won't. I am asking Biden to stop creating them though. The African American VP signals his commitment to African American issues. He damaged this commitment by signaling to Charlemagne "You have no other choice but to pick me because the other guy is worse so just shut it."

Trump continuing to blame Warren for Bernie's loss shows that it is incumbent on leftwing media/Bernie surrogates to bridge the schism that they created during the primary, if there's any hope for a successful united progressive movement. Trump's tweets are meant to drive down progressives' engagement in the electoral process. We can't let apathy fester on the left or we will never have any political power.

In real life, the schism is artificial and minuscule. Actual voters who supported Bernie overwhelmingly like Liz, and that’s backed up by every poll out there, and I’ve met almost no Berners in real life who’ve been like the Br*s on Twitter.

I think it depends on the age group. I know plenty of Bernie supporters who act the way the people online do. I think that left wing media is the real world for a lot of college age voters. Also I doubt it’s helpful having constant disinformation spread about you throughout progressive media. When Warren came out with a transition and full payment plan, lefty media said that she abandoned M4A and her progressive support went to Bernie. I’m sure other factors went into play on why she couldn’t secure the nomination but progressive media played a part.

Fat chance. Berns live for schisms, they don't build bridges. Currently, no, there is no hope for a successful united progressive movement, and we have no political power. Biden will choose a moderate because Berns tanked Warren. Progressives are never winning another ticket until the Berns sit down and STFU.

Reason #1 why it's so important they got buried as hard as they did in the primary this year.

While I do think that left wing media and Bernie supporters unfairly targeted and undermined Warren’s campaign, I wouldn’t blame them for Biden not picking her as VP. His donors have made it very clear that Warren is an unacceptable choice and I’m inclined to believe that he would listen to them over Bernie supporters (who he catered to the least during the primary). I think left wing media will eventually have to change their tune on Warren if only out of self interest. Without a growing progressive audience, who will consume their content. I guess they could just always move on to AOC but even some of them are turning on her. Biden winning will hopefully force the left to stop eating itself and unite against more moderate forces. I think leftwing media is instrumental in making that happen. Uyger has already pivoted, Seder has been pretty consistently rational, the change will happen it’s just going to take some time.

While it would totally fit for this dumpster fire of a primary to end with Biden picking Klobuchar, I don’t believe he will do it. Klobuchar was asked to drop out by the NAACP and other black activists in Minnesota because of her prosecutorial work. It would be a slap in the face to the black voters who secured Biden a win to pick her. I still believe this thing is between Harris and Warren and that we shouldn’t be worrying about this leak.

This seems a bit far. Biden has a much worse record on race than Klobuchar. I doubt that if most black voters are ok with all the shit he’s pulled, they’d be that turned off by Klobs.

That said, it would be a slap in the face to progressives. People seem to forget that progressive policies haven’t just been rejected this election, they’ve been actively mocked and ridiculed. Ex. Amy with the “bumper sticker” nonsense.

Among those progressive voters, a sizable portion (majority? I feel like it would be when you combine all the Sanders and Warren-Sanders voters) are Latino, Asian, and to a smaller extent, black and Muslim voters. The class of voters who believe in M4A, a Green New Deal, a wealth tax, etc. is multiracial, multigenerational, and sizable.

And again, not only has that platform been rejected, but mocked and diminished to an extremely large extent. So picking someone like Klobs, though I actually like her, would probably be the final blow, and erase the progress Biden’s made in courting those voters.

Biden was the VP of the first black president that’s why his record doesn’t matter. Amy doesn’t have that vest. It’s not just progressives who were angry about this appointment. A lot of black moderates were against it as well. In the general election, we know the majority of black people who vote are going to vote for the democratic nominee like they did in 2016. What we need to avoid is depressed black turnout in swing states like Wisconsin which is also what happened in 2016. The only reason why picking Amy wouldn’t lead to another loss is because of the growing number of never Trumpers and the fact that Biden does better with white male voters than Clinton did.

I completely agree with you. To put it another way Biden can stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and he wouldn’t lose any voters. To too many Trump is an existential threat and it excuses any shortcomings Biden has. That was true during the primary and it’s true now. All we can do is hope that he throws us a bone and when he’s in office, fight to make sure he keeps his promises. The only people with leverage here are the Never Trumpers and that’s why they are the ones being catered to (in terms of staff hires, advertisements etc).

Apparently Joe Rogan is spreading the lie that Obama spied on Trump's campaign. Fuck that motherfucker, and fuck Bernie for lending him credibility by appearing on the show just to gain support from the worst of humanity.

No. Rogan was making crap up to try to act like the blowback was just jealousy rather than justified criticism of his racism, transphobia, and tolerance for Nazis.

A Warren request would be extremely unlikely given her stance on even going on Fox. A Biden request is just laughable and removes even the shred of credibility from Rogan's claim. This is the guy who wouldn't go on Pod Save America with friendly voices from the Obama administration. Rogan was just too stupid to know where to stop lying.

A spokesperson for the Biden campaign denied that the former vice president had sought an appearance on Rogan's show. A Warren campaign aide didn't know of any attempts to get her on the show. (source)

Has anyone notice there’s been an influx of Biden supporters on Reddit against the idea of Biden picking Warren as VP. I don’t get why they think he’ll lose with her on the ticket, it’s not like Warren would turn off people from voting for him or anything, and it would only increase his turnout from Warren supporters.

It’s stupid, I’ve seen a lot of people on twitter against Warren for VP for some reason. Biden Brigade even compared him picking Warren to McCain picking Palin. It’s ridiculous they would even made that comparison.

I'm getting a lot of pushback on saying Warren's seat is safe if she's VP pick. That's fine (if worrisome) to me, but personally I'm pretty sold on the idea we don't need have much to worry about. I also think personnel is policy. How are you all feeling about it as of today?

Show them this article. It turns out-- the Massachusetts state legislature has a veto-proof supermajority and is ready to pass a bill to force Governor Baker to appoint a Democrat, and they're also able to do what NC did and make sure that the appointment has to be approved by them as well, so it won't even be a conservative Dem or DINO that fills the seat. The State Senate President has already taken steps to put it in motion, and has verified that the caucus is supportive of the motion.

Senator Warren’s presidential campaign and the possibility that it might succeed caused senate leadership to ready a plan to ensure it remains Democratic, known as “the nuclear option.” Senate President Karen Spilka, a progressive Democrat, counts with a 34-seat super majority over the minority of just four senate Republicans.

Massachusetts senate Democrats investigated their options and found that six states today count with laws that force that state’s governor to fill any US Senate vacancy with a member of the same political party of the vacating senator. In Arizona, one of those states, Republican US Senator John Kyl is currently the appointed interim senator in the seat vacated by the 2018 death of Senator John McCain. Other states that count with this law are Hawaii, Maryland, North Carolina, Utah and Wyoming.

Sources say that Massachusetts senate leadership has the nuclear option ready to roll if needed, even if only for the brief 145-to-160-day window before a special election, to prevent the Republican governor from tilting the balance of power in the US Senate if the November election produces a one-vote majority that Warren’s seat would be needed to overturn.

Thanks for the link, I'll save it. I've brought this up plenty, but it doesn't seem to have stuck in discourse outside of this sub. I just find that a little worrisome since everyone os talking about the VP possibilities so much.

The reason why it’s not sticking is simple. Every time someone says “we can’t lose her Senate seat” it means that they don’t like her for the job for other reasons, and are using that as an excuse to cop out. On the rare cases where it does stick, that means it’s a genuine concern the person had and that with that objection nullified, they like Warren for the job, and can accept that this is a wrong argument to make.

I agree for individual cases, but my real concern is that it's such a common sentiment (that she's too risky for VP because of the seat) in general - despite those of us paying close attention constantly arguing otherwise in the very same discussions.

Reddit isn't a statistical representation of society so it doesn't work like a poll. However, the most visible (not necessarily most common) opinions on Reddit can have a strong influence on users. Eventually that can affect polls.

That's what I meant when I said it was worrisome.

For individuals, though, their responses and arguments can be very telling of their motivations.

I think it's really misleading to say that. Your link says “I think having a woman on the ticket is a must,” Rep. Jim Clyburn said. “I’m among those who feel that it would be great for him to select a woman of color. But that is not a must.”

Reading that clearly suggests that he prefers to have a black woman to be represented on the ticket. I would prefer Liz being VP than some moderates, but it really leaves a bad taste in my mouth that you would twist his words when he indicated a clear preference. Black women have been poorly represented and still face a lot of discrimination. People have their preferences and Clyburn has one too.

I think the problem is the way it’s phrased by the author of this piece—Clyburn is not “pushing for” Biden to choose a woman of color. He explicitly said that while he’d prefer it, it’s not a must. Just a sloppy article with a lot of misstatements.

Lots of people have done the same misquoting of John Lewis too. Admittedly, Clyburn was more insistent earlier, but changed his language. Probably because the stakes are too high to, even unintentionally, stoke negative feelings over the veep choice. He’s landed on “I have a preference, but it’s ultimately Joe’s decision.” Which it is, and honestly, there’s no choice that doesn’t leave someone unhappy.

We can and should but I am over the purity standards where campaign fundraising are concerned.

I learned during the primaries that to handicap yourself when all your competitors are using every tool in their arsenal is shortsighted. If we want to be effective, we ought to work within the system as is. Using a knife when your opponents are legally using guns is suicidal and frankly, irresponsible

If Biden wants to end campaign financing, he has to be in position to enact those changes.

Better her than Biden, to be honest. I think he had all his private fundraisers open to the press during the primary, but I don't think he made any promises that people couldn't contact him privately outside of those.

But yeah, we should do better. Politicians should be proactively setting up guardrails or systems to prove that they aren't giving special favor to donors, even if just to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. We expect judges to proactively protect their appearance of impartiality, so it's weird we don't expect that of the other branches of government.

I've been relaying posts about Warren-endorsed candidates and would encourage more posts about such candidates. I think it helps for them to come out bit by bit so they can each get some spotlight and people who are just browsing might see a local name even if they're not looking for a nationwide summary.

I like that sub, but I’d prefer to filter out the opinions of Warren Dems specifically for the contested primaries 😂 Like who is supporting Sara Gideon vs Betsy Sweet? Theresa Greenfield vs Kimberly Graham? etc. etc.

Did anyone get this email from the Biden campaign? I rarely mind their emails but since they got my contact from Warren, I want to let them know this is how they have my attention so I filled out the form

there’s been a lot of speculation about who I will be selecting to join me on the campaign trail, and hopefully in the White House, as my Vice President.

Now, we’ve only just started the Selection Committee process and no, I am not unveiling any hints here. We still have a lot of important discussions to be had.

But my promise to you is this: If I'm elected president, my Cabinet and my administration will reflect the diversity that makes our country strong. You have my word as a Biden.

And that starts with a running mate who will make history as the first woman to serve as Vice President.

I’m not ready to share big news yet, but I want to let you know as soon as I am. If you add your name before midnight tonight, I’ll see to it that you’ll hear about my VP pick first:

Yes, I got this too. Every time I get a survey from Biden I find some way to work in Liz and my hope that he’ll put her on the ticket. Didn’t respond to this particular email though because it just felt so manipulative to me, like they’re playing on our hopes.

I feel this too, imagine if they just got on with it already, and named Warren as VP, imagine how much they could do to start putting the country back together. Also curious about the response numbers/ reactions to their joint OP/ed from last week.

Agree completely! I understand the need to thoroughly vet options, but the whole cage match VP set-up is really distasteful and should give way to the need for some sort of certainty as quickly as possible. I’m curious about the op ed response too. It definitely was a selling point for Liz with some of the more moderate dems I know personally who were leaning Klob—I think it helped them start to envision what that partnership might look like and how effective it could be.

I have to keep reminding myself Harris and Abrams would both make fantastic VPs to keep my hopes from getting too high... because even a stray pronoun is enough to send them rocketing into the stratosphere at this point.

The "we" plus the whole tone of campaigning together by talking about their past accomplishments...definitely getting my hopes up!

Even if he doesn't pick her, this still makes me happy. Shows Biden is really heading in the right direction of accountability and anti-corruption. Makes me feel more excited about him becoming president.

Well, I’d love some of your optimism. Maybe I’ll feel better after a year or two of the Biden administration but the only thing that’s making me excited is a possible Warren VP and a potentially blue Senate.

Tara Reade, the former Senate staffer who alleges Joe Biden sexually assaulted her 27 years ago, says she filed a limited report with a congressional personnel office that did not explicitly accuse him of sexual assault or harassment.

“I remember talking about him wanting me to serve drinks because he liked my legs and thought I was pretty and it made me uncomfortable,” Reade said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press. “I know that I was too scared to write about the sexual assault.”

Reade told the AP twice that she did not use the phrase “sexual harassment” in filing the complaint, but at other points in the interview said that was the behavior she believed she was describing. She said: “I talked about sexual harassment, retaliation. The main word I used – and I know I didn’t use sexual harassment — I used ‘uncomfortable.’ And I remember ‘retaliation.’”

She didn't explicitly call it sexual harassment much like Trump didn't explicitly ask for quid pro quo. This was a time before MeToo, I'm surprised that she filed at all (seeing as most sexual assault and harassment victims don't), I'm not surprised that she didn't explicitly call it sexual harassment.

Ryan Grim (the same guy who broke the Kavanaugh story) said that that is what's consistent with what she told him and other sources. This is not new information. What she described was sexual harassment. I think people are so desperate to dismiss this that they are ignoring the context of the time and what she's said.

This is a flat out lie. Did you read the original report? He didn’t out Dr. Ford. He didn’t mention her at all in the original reporting and only added her name after she publicly came forward. She wrote that letter to Diane Feinstein for some result and Feinstein wanted to and was going to ignore it. It was only after Grim’s reporting and the “media circus” did Feinstein finally decide to give the letter to the FBI. To spin a story about how a power democrat was willing to bury the testimony of an attempted rape survivor who spoke up, in order to shame the guy who called out the senator’s behavior is gross.

Dr. Ford came forward publicly due to the letter being leaked and reporters descending on her home and workplace and informing her her name was going to come out. She didn't have a choice.

Ryan Grim is a scumbag and a hack, that's just a fact. And either way, he gains no credibility from it, he didn't 'break' the story via investigative work, he just had looser ethics. He and Katie Halper utterly botched this whole Reade thing.

I can't read what the article you linked said, it's not available in the country I'm currently studying abroad in. In this report it says the following:

After recounting the details of her assault, Ford talked about her decision to send a letter to Dianne Feinstein—a senator from California, where Ford lives, and the ranking Democrat on the committee—and, anonymously, to The Washington Post. Ford’s intention was to notify the committee of her experience, in the hope, she said, that it would inform their decision. She aimed to be “helpful.”

Remember that Feinstein was going to bury it and not even give it to the authorities, effectively silencing a survivor who wanted to be helpful. Dr. Ford sent the letter to the Washington Post. Ryan Grim's article, which I am even more convinced now that you didn't read, was about Dianne Feinstein trying to bury the story. If Feinstein gave the letter to the authorities like she should've then Ryan's piece wouldn't exist. The anonymous letter that she sent to the Washington Post would still exist and I imagine they would have (and probably did) hound her down to get the full story.

Ryan Grim and independent media does what mainstream media is too cowardly to do. He challenges power. He didn't botch this whole Reade thing. The second Reade spoke up about her harassment she was smeared as a russian asset or Trump supporter by democrats. They responded and used the same ridiculous questions and tactics that republicans used against Dr. Ford. Wish I could say that I thought the days of attacking women for speaking up was behind the democratic party, but the way democratic party members still treat Kristen Gillibrand for speaking out tells me that this is still very much the party of Bill Clinton and his defenders.

But we didn't need it to unravel like this to know she was lying from the start. The allegations were never remotely credible.

This was always going to happen, and everyone should have seen it coming. We have known since 2016 that Trump's allies would manufacture "scandals" to help him win. We know from the Mueller Report that hostile foreign nations are amplifying bad faith actors on the right and left. We know from Trump's attempted bribery of Ukraine that the GOP will do anything to smear Biden. And we know from their comments following the Kavanaugh hearings that Republicans want to weaponize #MeToo against Democrats.

Burisma and Tara Reade were just the beginning. We should expect a crescendo of horseshit Biden "controversies" over the next six months. Stay vigilant.